User:St Smolen/sandbox

Stanislaw Smolen

Diplomatic Career
Dr. Stanislaw Smolen – career diplomat. At the end of the 1970s and in the 1980s posted to the Polish embassies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since the 1990s, his area of focus has been Middle East affairs. He opened Polish diplomatic missions in the Republic of Yemen and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where served for many years in the capacity of Chargé d’ Affaires a. i. of Poland and Deputy Chief of Mission. As the Polish Embassy in Yemen was additionally accredited to Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia, he frequently traveled to these countries with various bilateral tasks.

Between 2004 and 2005, in the rank of Ambassador, he completed a year-long assignment as Political Advisor to the Commanding Generals of the Multinational Division Central-South in Iraq, led by Poland. Stationed at the Division Headquarters in Babylon and Diwaniya and operating under front-line conditions, he handled civilian aspects of the Division’s activities. At the turn of 2006 - 2007 served as the Head of the Embassy of Poland in Baghdad. From October 2008 until August 2012 posted to Baghdad again initially as Chargé d’Affaires a. i. and later on nominated as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland to the Republic of Iraq. In August 2016 he returned to Baghdad to re-open the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, which had been suspended in September 2014 due to security reasons.

Over the past decades, he has held a variety of positions within the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Deputy Chief of the Task Team for Iraq and Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Middle East and Africa. Representative of the Ministry at various international conferences. Lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy in Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University in Cracow on security problems of the Middle East.

In recognition of outstanding performance decorated with several civilian and military medals of Poland and Ukraine.